Ok so it's interesting two people pointed out there is a bit of toxicity in the team and a few players are influencing Tony's selections

Reserve - Micah

Possibly Switch the cbs, Hunt is better on the right side.
RCB Hunt
LCB Kennedy
Reserve - unfortunately it is Polkinghorne but could have been Morrison.

RB Carpenter
LB Catley
Reserve for both - Torpey, some might have preferred Grant or Nevin.

Midfielders
DM Gorry
Reserve - Wheeler

CM Cooney-Cross
Reserve - Yallop

AM Fowler
Reserve - Van Egmond, imo Simon would have done a much better job and covered as a secondary striker. Chidiac was another option.

Forwards
RW Raso
LW Foord
S Heyman
Reserve for all - Vine

He was around for the Womens World Cup too. He has to be the next Matildas coach. It's not even a discussion. The problem is, we did so well in the WC and everyone was on board, so Tony had all the good press. He was also playing the very likeable character and everyone loved him, but was missing that as a manager, he was out of his depth. Some of these players should have been dropped or need to be being replaced. That we have to rely on a retired player says a lot about the depth, or lack of development of players coming through. Watching Macca last night was quite worrying. 


Always here mate. Some of the old guard need to make sure everyone else is keeping in check. 

I’d go with that except drop out Yallop and Van Egg.
Pull in Grant and Simon/Nevin.

Yep pretty good line up and reserves.
As mentioned no way is Fowler to play up front as mentioned by one or 2 AM perfect.

Opals lost to Nigeria in a massive upset. we were 27.5 point favs ($1.005 head to head) and lost by 13. Not a good start. 

What's census on Jackson still playing? Like she's been playing almost since as long as I've been alive it's crazy she's still playing 

Yeah shes 43 haha. Struggled tonight, think she's retired a few times as well. I dont follow it closely enough to really know, but surely she shouldn't be taking up a spot. 

after the last 2 games I assumed we had a bunch of defenders in their 30s who were past it

but it seems they are all in their prime. So that is inexplicable

the way I see it because she is still a class above most of them - postionally and her aura on the court, sure her legs mightn't keep up as well but every team has the movers and shakers.
Lets give her kudos for the green and gold even @ 43, they wouldn't have picked her if she wasn't up to it, you can only admire evergreen Champs.
https://sportstar.thehindu.com/football/lauren-jackson-comes-out-of-retirement-australia-basketball-paris-games-olympics-gold-wnba-stats/article67997577.ece

Assuming we are talking football again, watching the first two German goals is quite interesting.

In the first, two German players make lateral runs from behind our defenders and draw attention, while a third makes a lateral back post run a moment later from behind all our players completely unmarked. Both of the initial runners get tracked but everyone is watching the ball come in and nobody keeps an eye on their opponents. The third runner meets a perfectly weighted delivery at the back post.

For the second goal, number 11 for Germany makes a fast lateral run from the back of the pack as the corner is about to be kicked. A split second later as the ball is being kicked numbers 7 and 8 for Germany also make runs from the back with 7 leading. Raso is drawn a few steps away from the central position to put body pressure on the first runner and number 8 gets tracked by Kennedy in some close defending, but in between the two of them number 7 runs completely unmarked and meets a perfectly timed and weighted cross with her head. We covered two of the three runners coming from behind and missed the middle one.

You don't play like that without practice and skill, but for our part we might be used to defending against attackers streaming in from upfield positions - we were totally at sea against them coming from behind and running across the goal face. Nobody was watching the players standing behind to even see them run.

That aside, Brand is fast, skilful and has incredibly long legs perfect for slickly gliding past individual defenders at will. Their third goal was well executed and the final shot came from Brand simply outpacing Cooney-Cross who had seen the danger and was trying to negate her from way out. It was caused by Carpenter thinking her pace was needed to cover the middle (probably true) and leaving the winger to run freely then cross to the flying Brand.

Germany are a better side and losing to them is not shameful or a huge worry in itself. It was how we watched the corner kicks coming in to cover the space and were oblivious to our opponents runs that cost us (as someone mentioned 'ball watching' many posts ago).

For the Zambia match it was more the individual speed and strength of a couple of their players combined with two excellent contributions by Van Egmond to their attack. Their first was individual brilliance - an undefendable move by Banda that could only be stopped by a keeper with another foot or two of leap/stretch/speed. I would expect it to be a goal against any team in the world though. The second was an inability of the slow Van Egmond to do anything other than nudge the ball towards a Zambian speedster who then outpaced her opponents and delivered a well aimed ball just past the outstretched dive of Mackenzie-Arnold. The third was Mackenzie-Arnold delivering a poor clearing punch straight to Banda. Fourth was Van Egmond attempting to clear by kicking the ball into Banda and ricocheting into our goal, and the fifth was Cooney-Cross not marking a player close enough from a free kick and an excellently delivered ball onto their running head.

Take out Van Egmond's two accidents and Mackenzie-Arnolds poor punch to clear and it is a different game. I really like Cooney-Cross but she has been shown up to be a bit slow off the mark against fast starting runners. Not much you can do about that. There is an obvious reason why two of the fast, athletically built Zambians are the two highest paid players in women's football - no shame in being beaten one-on-one by that and actually not anything to really worry about since you can't stop them all game. Like watching men play against boys - you can only do so much to limit them.

Take Van Egmond out of the line-up and the combination of removing the risk factor with the improvement in pace/contribution and we are a different team. Which isn't to say it is all Van Egmond's fault - just one contributing factor that is easily remedied.

ABC's Sports Analyst Roy Slaven interviewed Gustavsen and could only get shrugs in response to his questions. 

Seems like Tony is just coasting his way to the inevitable end.

Looks like another coach that has to let the players do what they want.  It's like a team of amateurs & it shows.

Watched the archery last night. Mens team final.

Last set France vs South Korea.

France get 57 out of a possible 60 from 6 arrows. (Which would have won them any other set.) South Korea blow them out of the water wither a 59 (5 arrows in the 10 and a single in the 9) and take gold.

Not a bad old effort hitting a 120mm target from 70m. 

Amazing what you get sucked into if you sit for a while. Ended up going to bed at 2am by the time that finished.

Watched the 20 minute highlights the other day vs Zambia of the full match and thought what rubbish but then last night I watched the last 20 minutes in full and it was dead set shithouse. Zambia could have scored half a dozen times in the last 20. Once the Zambian lass almost backpassed it to our keeper when she was one on one from about 5 out. We had chances too that we squandered big time. Kerr would have buried 2 or 3 of them easily.

I can't see us getting any sort of result against the US. The only chance we have is they're through and MAY put out some second stringers.

Canada has appealed the 6-point deduction for spying with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A hearing is likely to take place Tuesday, with a decision coming Wednesday.

Any point changes would impact all 12 Olympic teams hours before final group games.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/40672450/olympics-2024-canada-file-appeal-spying-points-penalty

especially dead centre bulls eye - wouldn't want to be at the end of those missiles !
Similar to shooting - amazing hand stediness and eye.

They would have to put out some second stringers, games played every few days at this tournament, would be a massive benefit to rest players before the quarter finals. Small squads so cant rest too many anyway, but I'd assume Spain do the same as they've also qualified. If we somehow get through, even winning would probably have us only 3rd in the group and a very likely match up with a rested Spain in the quarters. 

I read somewhere that the Sth Korean women have won gold at the archery for the last 10 Olympics in a row, they must have some pretty elite development program going on over there. 

This was from Lucy Zelic's twitter:

Are we ready to discuss the elephant in the room? I understand that it’s a sensitive subject but it’s worthy of both addressing and questioning. I’ve received a number of messages and tweets to this effect so let’s look at the facts before us.

In 2022, Zambia women’s national team forward, Barbra Banda and fellow players were denied the opportunity to represent their nation at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations after “failing gender eligibility tests.”

Speaking to BBC Sport at the time, Andrew Kamanga, the president of the Football Association of Zambia said: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a CAF (Confederation of African Football) requirement, and unfortunately Banda did not meet the criteria set by CAF.”

In addition to Banda, “three teammates including striker Racheal Kundananji were also ruled ineligible to compete for Zambia in the World Cup-qualifying tournament.”

"It's unfortunate that we find ourselves going into the tournament without our best players." Said Kamanga.

Without Banda and others, Zambia went on to finish third, after losing to eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.

However, in 2023, these players were cleared to play at the Women’s World Cup because FIFA have permitted teams “to undergo their own internal gender assessments.”

All of this, in spite of the fact that football’s global governing body introduced gender verification regulations in 2011 for all competitions. Players subjected to it, cited them as “humiliating” because they physically had to remove their underpants as proof but there are much less invasive ways to prove a competitors sex and it involves a simple cheek swab.

“FIFA competitions are defined for specific groups determined by age and sex in order to ensure a level playing field for all players…It is a major responsibility of member associations and team physicians to ensure correct gender of their players.” Said FIFA in an official press release.

It must also be said that Zambians narrowly avoided missing out on featuring at this year’s Olympics after FIFA “threatened the country’s football association with suspension amid accusations of money-laundering offences against its president and “undue influence by third parties”.

Zambia’s coach, Bruce Mwape, has also been dogged with allegations of sexual misconduct stretching back to the women’s world cup last year with fresh allegations emerging in May this year.

This, very sadly for many of the female players, is not a nation immune from controversy.

On Monday morning against Australia, the players banned from competing at WAFCON 2022 - both Banda and Kundananji - scored all five of Zambia’s goals. Banda with another hat trick, while Kundananji secured a brace.

In 2021, Banda became the “first woman footballer in Olympic history to score back-to-back hat tricks and the first to score two hat tricks in one tournament.”

Furthermore, In September 2022, Banda led Zambia to win their first 2022 COSAFA Women's Cup, the top women's international football tournament for national teams from southern Africa. Banda’s ten goals resulted in the undeniably skilled footballer being awarded the Golden Ball Award.

Banda is also Africa’s all-time top goal-scorer in Olympic history and recently, together with Kundananji, they created history after signing in the NWSL and becoming two of the highest paid footballers in the women’s game.

So where does this leave us?

We are entitled to ask questions. We are entitled to know why the failed gender verification tests conducted in 2022 were completely ignored by FIFA in 2023 and continue to be ignored in 2024. That the International Olympics Committee do not have “as strict” rules when it comes to gender testing is also a slight on the credibility of the organisation and the sports being contested.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that Australia won 6-5 or that Zambia fails to progress at the Olympics - what matters is the integrity of the game.

^^^^^

Change the tests or worse, ignore them, because of 'sensibilities'.

'Thoughts and prayers' to anyone undergoing these tests.

What a joke.

Yeah I had a vague memory of the South Koreans dominating the sport (or being up there) for years.

The skill is off the charts. 70m is 1 and a half olympic pools away and they're banging them in, or nearabouts, consistently in the 9 ring, if not the 10 nearly every time.

Amazing.

Well Banda just signed for huge money for Orlando, so Im sure she's going to absolutely cop it over there until she can prove she's a women. Surely they wouldn't spend all that money unless they were sure? Gonna be an interesting watch.  

Boomers and popyrin playing soon 

was that their two best players who failed the tests?

Sports analyst? I thought he was a comedian, H.G.Nelson's partner.

Yep.

I reckon its more impressive because with a gun you're not straining to hold it. Those bows they have are recurve so the pressure is there until they release the arrow.

Watching it again now.  Men and women singles.

Lol Ol Roy called a sports analyst haha
yep he’s been HG’s partner in crime for yonks - absolute hoots hearing their commentary the early days.
Great banter and send ups of athletes.
Lol a sports analyst that’s a classic